New Tables Coming to Pinball Arcade on PS4, PS3, PS Vita

Hey Pinball fans! I’m Mike Lindsey, Community Manager at FarSight Studios. I’m originally from the Big Bear area where we recreate all these amazing tables. It’s awesome to have the opportunity to do what I love (talk to people and make friends), live in the mountains where I feel most at home, and work on a game that is preserving something as cool as real pinball for all of it’s fans out there.

Today, we’re proud to announce that Black Knight 2000, WHO Dunnit, High Speed, and Junk Yard will be available on July 15th for PS3 and PS Vita, and then on July 22nd for PS4.

This launch will be retrofitting your system with 80’s and 90’s tables packed with action, suspense, and comedy. These four tables brought tons of excitement to so many when arcades were running at full steam across America. FarSight studios is determined to bring back some of that long lost enjoyment.

Black Knight 2000 (1989):

The Black Knight rides again in this brilliant sequel to the Steve Ritchie hit from 1980. Players take on the role of good versus evil as they battle the Black Knight in high velocity gameplay.

The game is all about speed and quick reactions, highlighted by features such as an upper and lower level, repeating U-Turn and Skyway Loop shots rewarding accurate shooters, and a Drawbridge that lowers to reveal a ramp.

The patented Magna-Save feature from the original game is back. This allows players to activate a ball-saving magnet preventing balls from draining. Great scores are achieved by collecting Lightning Wheel Awards, scoring Hurry-Up bonuses and playing the three awesome Multi-Ball rounds, including The King’s Ransom Wizard mode. 5,703 units of this table were produced.

WHO dunnit (1995):

Designed by Dwight Sullivan and Barry Oursler, this table combines the thrill of gambling with an intriguing murder mystery.

Players take on the role of ace investigator Nick Spade as they collect clues, interrogate suspects, and catch killers. The playfield features a functioning slot machine and a unique scoop ramp, which feeds three separate habitrails to lower, raise, and exit the casino elevator. A mysterious murder. One victim. Twenty possible scenarios. Who has the motive? Who has the skill? Everyone’s dying to know WHO dunnit. 2,416 of this table were produced.

High Speed (1986):

Designed by Steve Ritchie and inspired by his personal experience, this table puts players in the role of a driver who is not planning on stopping. Run the red light and suddenly sirens shriek, lights flash, an APB is issued, and the police chase is on!

Flying over ramps and careening down freeways, the get-away is fast and furious! This was the first table to use Williams’ System 11 hardware, the first to play a complete song, and it was the first to have a Multi-Ball Jackpot that increased and carried over from game to game. 17,080 units of this table were produced.

Junk Yard (1996):

Billed as “The Meanest Game in the Whole Darn Town.” Designed by Barry Oursler and Dwight Sullivan, this table challenges players to escape Crazy Bob’s Junk Yard. This is accomplished by collecting pieces of Junk to build various contraptions, going on wild Adventures and ultimately launching into Outer Space to take on Crazy Bob.

The Playfield has many great features including the Great Toilet, the Magic Bus, mean old Spike the dog, and a moving Crane. It’s not hard to play in the yard. 3,013 units of this table were produced.

And…

One more bit of great news that a lot of you have been waiting for: we’ve agreed upon terms with all of the major licenses and clearances we need to recreate the Addams Family pinball table! We expect to launch the Kickstarter this summer, so get ready, fans. We’ll need your help.

meh. i’ve bought all of the tables on their release day up until the ps4 PA hit. i play the vita ones like crazy and would *LOVE* to play them on the ps4 as well and i appreciate the time and expense it takes to port them, but paying full price again for tables i’ve already bought has left a sour taste in my mouth. should be a discount at least. i’ll just keep going w/ zen from now on. =(

I’m guessing these won’t be cross-buy across PS4 and PS3/Vita? I’d like to see that if possible. I’d also like to see trophies added to the PS3/Vita versions. I’d heard you ran out of trophy allocation and Sony said no more, but that seems ridiculous.

Trophies aren’t the most important thing to have, but it’s nice when all the older tables have them, and makes me hesitate on buying new tables. I already have all the others, that’s a lot of pinball!

We tried to get Sony to allow more trophies, but they wouldn’t budge. I believe we will be implementing some trophies that will be more across the board. “Get a #1 score on on all tables in Season Two”, or something like that.

In my opinion, FarSight should have scrapped the embarrassingly easy “Top 5″ bronze trophies from the beginning, and just had 2 trophies per table – a bronze for the Standard Goals, silver for the Wizard Goals.

If my math is correct, this would have allowed for trophies on 21 more tables beyond The Champion Pub… HOWEVER, as you can see, they’d still run out of trophy points eventually anyway, so the problem isn’t FarSight’s, it’s Sony’s. Why there’s even a limit for such a thing is beyond me, but I guess they have their reasons.

Still unable to buy the whole season though, eh? Which sucks because I have to wait until they are all out (which I certainly will do) but that just looks like one fewer sale, which if enough people do it means Farsight won’t be able to make more tables :( I hate you, Apple.

Awesome! I was just talking to my friend about this game last night, saying I don’t think you guys are supporting it anymore. Really happy for this update. :)
Though, I will wait for seasons to be complete so I can buy the season pass, like I did with season 1. I just hope it doesn’t take forever. Don’t be a stranger here, Mike! We need you to occasionally remind us that this game is still being worked on.

@punkmusic2009, you should hit up the Zen team with that request, although they seem to be heavily focused on making Marvel and Star Wars tables. FarSight re-creates classic, real tables, so we’ll never see a Destiny table unless one gets made in real life and becomes insanely popular. lol

I would like to see more tables from the 1970s till the early 80s. Flash Gordan, KISS, Star Wars, Spider Man, etc. And many of the older Poker themed tables like Gottlieb’s Royal Flush or High Hand would be great.

Thanks Mike. I really love TPA. As soon as the Season 2 & 3 passes become available, I will be purchasing them first thing.

@Ecks
As far as the the trophy cap, I tried contacting anyone I could to ask why there couldn’t be an exception of the trophy limit on games like TPA and Zen Pinball 2 that have continuous DLC. I understand trophy limits for other games that have annual releases, limited DLC, or shovelware that may abuse it to lure trophy hunters But these 2 games will continue to release tables for a while to come and it’s a shame that they’ll be at their limits far before they have reached the end. I’ve tried tweeting and retweeting Shuhei Yoshida, Adam Boyles, Mark Cerny, Sony’s Twitter. I’ve even tried emailing and Tweeting Gregg Miller and Colin Moriarty over at IGN. I could never get a response. Maybe if enough people politely ask one or all of these individuals over and over again, perhaps someone can get an answer.

I’m afraid I stopped buying your tables when you ran out of trophies. You could have made separate games for each season to resolve that issue. Also the season 1 discount does not work for me on PS4 because I helped kickstart The Twilight Zone!

Moving forward lets just have crossbuy between PS4 and PS Vita. PS3 crossbuy offer has run its course and needs to be replaced with PS4 crossbuy now that it is the current generation. It just makes more sense to have it this way going forward.

Of late I have stopped buying the tables completely due to my disappointment with rebuying the PS4 tables and lack of season pack at the beginning of a season. I would like to get back, but the paltry discounts are not helping the matters.

I just got the Pinball Arcade Newsletter, and in the PlayStation section it mentioned a Summer Sale: “Also, stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks, but expect to see some 50% deals on PSN for Pinball Arcade products! “

No crossbuy kills the deal. Atleast make it PS3/Vita or PS4/Vita so I can play at home and on the go. I’ll have to stick with Zen because of no crossbuy. It doesnt make any sense. I know I know. You guys put a lot of time in to bringing these tables over to the PS4. But your tables are also 2 1/2 times the cost of Zen’s and theirs are crossbuy. Come on guys. Get with it. Business sense to me is offering a crossbuy and getting some business, or not offering crossbuy and getting no business. Hmmm. Something is better than nothing isnt it? Oh well. And I dont expect any reponse….you guys never respond to the tough critique.

@ Mike Lindsey, I hate to say it, but no cross buy essentially equates to no buy. As much as I love playing Pinball Arcade, I am not going to fork over another $15 just so I can play it on the PS4. I’m perfectly fine playing it on the PS3. Not only that, but with Zen Pinball 2, everything is cross buy, meaning if you bought it on PS3, you automatically get it on PS4. So if they could do it, then why couldn’t you? My guess would be sheer greed, but that’s just me. If you have a better answer, then I’d sure like to hear it. As any rate, I basically play Pinball Arcade on PS3, and Zen Pinball 2 on PS4.
I have an idea – let’s all boycott Season 3 until they agree to make it cross buy on PS3, PS4, and Vita. Freeze out their sales for a few months, and they may just sing a different tune. Who’s with me?

We put many months of the entire studios time into rebuilding the game for next gen. It’s much improved. We could have just ported the game over with the same PS3 graphics and physics and made it cross-buy, but that’s just not the case.

That’s your choice and I respect your decisions. But everyone has to give FS a break. They make the ps4 version completely from the ground up, despite some cosmetic consistencies from earlier consoles. I loved it when they announced real-time lighting effects for the PS4. I stopped buying tables for the ps3 and CHOSE to wait for the ps4 versions. I knew they giving deals for those who already purchased on the ps3 but so no point in having dups on both consoles. I do pay extra to have all the tables on my Android device and that’s another CHOICE.

You have to look at it in two perspectives. You either pay for ‘on-the-go’ music streaming service’ like attitude that gets tables but not at their best quality. Or you pay and wait for the real-deal on PC and or consoles, like you would buy the cd or record physically. You should be thankful that Sony introduced the cross-buy between the Ps3 and vita.

Thanks jahonius80! You should give it a try. Tales of the Arabian Nights is free to play. :-)

We really do put a lot of effort into recreating the tables. It’s a really awesome process from beginning to finish. We buy the physical table, have the artists model the pieces, we have our emulation engineer copy the chip from the back box, and then we put it back together and play it for weeks to get the rules correctly documented. We are all excited to receive our new table each month.

First, please allow me to say thank you for all the hard work that goes into these recreations. In 1993, my brother, Danny died at the young age of 20. So we all used to go to a local Mazzio’s Pizza, where he worked, sit around eat and play pinball. As the years went by, we would play the Addams Family pinball game, trying to best each other constantly. A few years back now, Darrin, the same person who helped me get through Danny’s death, died of a massive heart attack. We both had talked about when we used to play The Addams Family pinball game, and how it helped both of us get through some tough times. Darrin would be as happy as I am right now to see this game live on. Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!

That is a very touching story. It’s amazing how many people write in with stories like this. Pinball was big and it created a lot of good memories for people. We are very happy to be able to bring some of the pinball joy back.

All I know is I love pinball. I have the PS3 and Vita versions. Love them! Don’t care about trophies myself, just the tables. I have ALL currently available and plan to continue to buy new tables as they get released. Keep ’em coming.

One thing i hope gets fixed……Medieval Madness goes into the upgrade loop if I try to make it the Pro version on the Vita. (USA) I can play it as the non-pro, but as soon as I try to make it the pro version MM and Bride of Pinbot go into the upgrade loop. I tried re-installing all of TPA 3 times with the same issue, on the 4th install I just didn’t make it the pro version so I could at least play them. Will that be fixed?

As for cross-buy…..maybe make it where Ps3 or PS4 table purchases give cross-buy for Vita. Or at least complete season 3 before switching cross-buy to PS4/Vita.

TPA is one of my favorite franchises on the PS3/Vita. I will buy the tables regardless of cross-buy or not.

#30@Crashyx. It’s not FarSight’s fault. It’s Sony’s fault for carrying over their trophy level cap of 96 trophis to the PS4. The Pinball Arcade will have more trophies for Season 2. Contact Sony about it.

I have the disk version on the ps4 and for $39.99 don’t tell me all I got is season one , or will season two or three be added when they release for the ps4 . Also why are your tables way more costly than Zen , please don’t use that we make the game look nicer on the ps4 because I don’t buy that because the new deadpool and star wars tables on Zen are just as nice as your tables , they might even be better I just find your pricing insanely high when you look at Zen and making people pay for each version also then trying to justify it with we updated the graphics lol now that is not looking good when deadpool and star wars tables on Zen look just as good as yours .

From your meticulous recreation of vastly varying boards that quite frankly makes Zen look like the Corporate License Puppy Mill of Pinball, to your successful kick-starter campaigns to get us some heavy hitters like TZ and STTNG, you have been a pinball fans dream.

As a pinball fan, we’re 100 percent satisfied. As a PlayStation fan though, we’re about halfway there. No cross leader boards and trophies kill the latter tables, almost like falling off a cliff. If TPA is a solo experience we should have trophies. If a social experience we should be able to compare scores against friends. Denying both basic features is puzzling.

We know of the Sony limitations, but quite frankly did the team not have time to think of a way around this before the PS4 launch? Launching season 1 one way, skipping season 2, and releasing season 3 as piecemeal bare bones is creating a weird environment for new comers, especially when TPA was basically a launch title for the PS4 platform and really had the opportunity to capture a new market.

In conclusion, you guys do a great job, and please consider our feedback that is given lovingly in order to make sure you guys are around for years to come.

Ok, just read through hundreds of comments. I understand the bottom line of it all, but why can it not be cross-buy. I have all 3 sony systems , 4 if you count psp, and the most frustrating thing is to have to buy the same game over and over. I love the tables ((Twilight Zone) is my all time favorite)). A little extra lighting effect? I know you want polish but its not going to come at my expense, I just like many gamers can’t afford it so I also may have to side with the Zen Pinball crowd, it just seems less expensive for my pinball fix in the end. And they are good games… I will promise to watch this play out but I am on the fence.
Unless you guys gave me the Guns-n- Roses pinball machine…….just sayin’

Downloaded the 2.21 update on my PS3 last night and highly looking forward to purchasing the new tables once I get home from work tonight. Keep up the great work and I would like to echo the sentiments that a cross buy option like Zen Pinball 2 would be a great thing for Pinball Arcade to consider too.

First off, it’s important to say that I am a fan of real pinball, which is why I love PA. I just have to say to those of you mentioning other companies, that those games have nothing to do with REAL pinball in my opinion. The PA games are based on real physical games that actually require some pinball skill and practice, not simply names like (Movie name here) while the game has nothing to do with the movie. The other company’s games seem to all be the exact same game (slight variations) with different skins. I don’t see real strategy or objectives like real, well thought out pinball games. I will say the (other guy’s) games do have amazing graphics though! You can’t compare a newly thought up game to PA. They are completely different types of gameplay. One type of gameplay being “Ooh, cool! I like this movie… therefore I will play any game that looks like it had anything to do with it, even though it didn’t”. The other being “I like real Pinball, and want to play exact replicas of real machines designed by real pinball machine designers”. My post is not to offend but to simply point out the difference in 2 good games. If you disagree, you can always hug your movie character doll. ;)